Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi talks about her 25 years in Congress and being the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to a talk at the Fairmont Hotel on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi talks about her 25 years in Congress and...

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Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi talks about her 25 years in Congress and being the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to a talk at the Fairmont Hotel on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi talks about her 25 years in Congress and...

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** FILE ** Then newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi bangs the gavel in the U.S. Capitol in Washington in this Jan. 4, 2007 file photo. Pelosi crashed through a glass ceiling when she became the first female House speaker a year ago. That turned out to be the easy part. The reality of leading a bitterly divided Congress at odds with a Republican White House is that victories are difficult and disappointments many. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Photo: Susan Walsh, ASSOCIATED PRESS

** FILE ** Then newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi...

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Rep Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., Chariwoman of the Congressional Working Group on China, left, greets Chai Ling a leader of the Chinese pro-democratic movemenet in Tiananmen Square before speaking to members of Congress on Capitol Hill Wednesday June 6, 1990. Chai lin recently escaped from China through France and is visiting the United States.

Photo: Doug Mills, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rep Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., Chariwoman of the Congressional Working...

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June 2, 1987-Nancy Pelosi and John Burton on victory night at Pelosi headquarters, her husband Paul is in the middle.

Photo: Eric Luse, The Chronicle

June 2, 1987-Nancy Pelosi and John Burton on victory night at...

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** A SELECTION OF IMAGES BY CHARLES DHARAPAK, PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR IN WHITE HOUSE NEWS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION 2012 CONTEST ** House Speaker-designate John Boehner of Ohio wipes away tears as he waits to receive the gavel from outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., during the first session of the 112th Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jan. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Rep. Nancy Pelosi Tuesday hit back at Mitt Romney's recent efforts to revive memories of the Solyndra bankruptcy, saying that President Obama's support of the failed Fremont solar firm showed a willingness to take risks to create jobs that wasn't "equivalent" to the GOP presidential candidate's work at Bain Capital.

The House minority leader said Republicans tout the private sector's role in creating jobs and say they are "the ones who say they're risk takers."

But the Romney campaign's aggressive attacks on Obama over Solyndra, which went belly-up after receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee, sends the opposite message.

"Now all of a sudden, they're saying, 'don't take risks,' " she said.

This week, Republicans ramped up attacks on Obama and what they call his administration's "crony capitalism" in the Solyndra deal. A Romney campaign ad cites several solar and green-energy projects, including Solyndra, that the Obama administration backed with taxpayer funds.

"Obama is giving taxpayer money to big donors - and then watches them lose it," the Romney ad says.

The ad is a response to Democratic attack ads featuring workers laid off from firms that were downsized by Romney's former company, Bain Capital.

She recalled her decision to enter politics at the urging of the late Rep. Sala Burton, whom she succeeded in Congress, and spoke of the principles that she said still drive her career - most notably her belief that government can be a force for good through such programs as public health and education.

Take your party back

Most Republican leaders in Washington, she said, don't value that. She urged them to return to an era of greater political civility and cooperation.

"Take back your party," she said. "We need a strong, grand Republican Party. This is not the Grand Old Party that we know."

Romney, who is fundraising in the Bay Area Wednesday, has been trying to mute Democrats' criticism of his long and profitable career at Bain, a venture capital and investment firm, political insiders said.

On Tuesday, Pelosi defended the president and criticized GOP efforts to revive the uproar that broke last year when Solyndra abruptly closed. The president "was a job creator from day one," Pelosi said, adding that Obama took "swift, bold action" to create clean-energy jobs.

Pelosi said she was proud to advance his proposals with her support of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - the stimulus - which was designed to revive the economy and support jobs.

"With those kind of initiatives, some succeed and some do not," she said. "But without the president's initiatives," unemployment would be far higher than 9 percent.

"There is no equivalent between how one recipient of a grant" - Solyndra - "succeeded or not," she said, and Romney's record at the private equity firm and his assertion that it "qualifies him to be the president of the United States."

No real proposals

Pelosi bristled when asked whether it was fair for Romney to raise the issue of the Department of Energy's use of public funds to guarantee federal loans to Solyndra, where 1,100 employees were laid off.

"The fact is, they don't really have that much to talk about. ... They want to talk about this and that and the other thing - instead of what they want to do," she said. "Really important, as you watch all of this, is to remember - they do not believe in a public role in job creation," she said of Republicans.

Whether it is "clean air, clean water, food safety, public safety, public education, public transportation, public housing, public health, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security - they don't believe in a public role, and they're sincere in their beliefs," she said. "And they act upon them. And it's not good for children and other living things."

25 years in D.C.

Here are some of the key moments in Rep. Nancy Pelosi's political career in Washington:

April 1987: Pelosi runs for Congress and narrowly wins the Democratic primary, beating Harry Britt in a special election to replace retiring Rep. Sala Burton, one of Pelosi's political mentors.

June 1987: Pelosi, 47, whose father was a mayor of Baltimore and a U.S. representative from Maryland, is elected to the House of Representatives, beating Republican Harriet Ross in one of the most liberal congressional districts in the nation.

1990s: She takes up the cause of human rights in China, sponsoring measures to allow Chinese students to remain in the United States after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

2001: She is elected House minority whip, second-in-command to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.

2002: Pelosi is elected House minority leader after Gephardt resigns to seek the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. She becomes the first woman to lead a major political party in the United States.

2007: Pelosi is elected House speaker after Democrats win control of the chamber, becoming the first woman and first Californian to hold the position.

2009: She is re-elected speaker and uses her clout to push legislation backed by President Obama, including the economic stimulus program.

2010: Pelosi is instrumental in congressional passage of a sweeping health care reform law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signs in March. Republicans, riding a surge of support from voters sympathetic to the Tea Party, regain control of the House in the November elections.

2011:John Boehner becomes House speaker, and Pelosi is bumped to minority leader.

2012: Pelosi, 72, celebrates 25 years in Congress and her stature as the highest-ranking woman in U.S. political history.